Landing the Best Airfares to Europe
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| Make your seat selection the minute you score that cheap flight...or be surprised later! |
By Rick Seaney
Times are tough, but affordable airfares are still out there — you just have to dig a little deeper. When looking for transatlantic airfares, start with two basic rules:
1. Start Early: Begin shopping four to six months before your trip. Do some homework, know what constitutes a "good deal," and don't hesitate when you find it.
2. Be Flexible: Be willing to adapt your plans to coincide with the cheapest airfare. For example, if you fly in late May instead of early June, or in late September instead of early September, you'll skirt the high-price airfare season (potentially saving hundreds of dollars), but can still enjoy traveling in Europe at near-summer season. Also, avoid flying on weekends if possible: Monday through Thursday flights are usually $30 to $50 less per flight segment than weekend travel. You can also save by flying out of a major hub; you might have to drive two hours to fly out of Chicago, for example, but you could save hundreds of dollars over using a smaller, regional airport.
Keeping those basic principles in mind, follow this step-by-step guideline to finding good airfares:
Figure out how much flexibility you're willing to sacrifice to save money. Different travelers have different definitions of "cheap." Backpackers on a rock-bottom budget can put up with extra hassle to save money. For example, no matter where you're headed in Europe, consider flying first to Dublin (which has among the lowest airport taxes and fees in all of Europe), then hopping aboard a budget flight on www.ryanair.com to your final destination. Families traveling with kids, on the other hand, might spend a little more for a more direct flight plan to minimize layovers. If you prefer to travel upscale, "cheap" can mean a relatively affordable business-class ticket — such as on a discount business class-only airline like Silverjet (www.flysilverjet.com). It's pricier than coach, but still cheaper than "regular" business class. Also look for sales on business class on big airlines; for example, recently Continental offered a summer business class base airfare for only about $200 more each way than coach.
Know roughly what you'll pay. Value is relative. A "cheap" airfare to Europe this year would have been a rip-off a few years ago. To be sure you've got the best fare for your trip, you have to comparison-shop. Check sites that compare multiple airlines, as well as the airlines' own sites. Some websites — such as mine, www.farecompare.com — provide a helpful list or graph of "historical" price drops on a particular route. This way, you can clearly see when prices typically rise and fall throughout the year. Reviewing a yearly and monthly price calendar will also help you see how prices vary from season to season, and plan your flight dates accordingly.
Sign up for email alerts. Once you have a sense of what price range you're looking for, find a website you like and sign up for European email price-drop alerts. This way you'll know as soon as a good fare becomes available — and, since you've done your research, you'll recognize that it's a good value. Let technology do this grunt work for you, to save you both money and time.
Be aware of additional costs. Before you even begin searching for that ticket to Europe, you should know that it's going to cost you an average of $330 for taxes and fees (especially fuel surcharges) — and that's before you add the price of the airfare. After adding these costs, a "steal" might turn into not such a great deal after all.
Don't wait. When you see a good deal, pounce on it! Today's jets are filled to capacity, and airlines set aside a smaller and smaller number of their seats at their very cheapest prices. And since everyone competes for these same seats, you must act quickly. The biggest complaint I hear is when someone shopping at work finds a great deal, then heads home to consult with a spouse or travel partner. Unfortunately, by then, the deal is long gone.
Get seat assignments early. When you purchase your ticket, try to lock in your seat selection as early as possible. You do not want to be in the center of that five-seats-across row in coach. Going to the "seat selection" page will also let you see the size of the plane you'll be on (the aircraft shown above is an unlikely scenario...you hope)!
Airfares are high these days, but good news is on the horizon. A new US-European agreement called "Open Skies" went into effect on March 30th. Open Skies loosened a lot of the strictures on transatlantic travel. That means more competition — and, eventually, lower prices. Some travelers have already reaped the benefits of Open Skies-related promotional fares. For example, Northwest Airlines recently offered $700 round-trip airfare in June to celebrate a new route from Seattle to London.
Until more of those Open Skies savings start to kick in, travelers can use a combination of technology and education when shopping for airfare to help them make a good air-travel buying decision.
Rick Seaney is the CEO of Farecompare.com, a consumer airline ticket research website.